Homemade Mashed Potatoes With Evaporated Milk
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If you’re searching for a homemade mashed potatoes recipe with a difference, you must try these mashed potatoes with evaporated milk. A Southern specialty, they’re richer in flavor, creamy, and the perfect side dish.
Classic mashed potatoes are the perfect comfort food, aren’t they? My family always insists my grandma make a big batch whenever we visit for dinner. That’s because she makes her mashed potatoes with evaporated milk, which makes them that much more fluffy, creamy, and delicious.
Evaporated milk made its first debut in Illinois, but it took off like wildfire as soon as Southerners discovered it. Due to our overwhelmingly hot climate, milk spoilage was a particular problem in this area of the country, and having shelf-stable milk that would keep even in the summertime was almost too good to be true.
This old-fashioned mashed potatoes recipe is simple to follow with minimal ingredients. Serve your creamy mashed potatoes alongside popular Southern main dishes, like fried chicken, crispy breaded pork chops, slow cooker pulled pork, and meatloaf. It’s also a great holiday recipe served alongside some crockpot turkey breast.
You should also keep reading as I share how to perfectly boil and mash your potatoes for the best homemade mashed potatoes you’ve ever eaten. Enjoy!
Recipe Ingredients
- Salt
- Potatoes
- Evaporated milk
- 1/2 cup of butter
- A pinch of pepper
Wash, peel, and slice potatoes.
Put a pot of water on the stove and turn it on medium so it can be getting good and hot.
Add about a teaspoon of salt to the water.
Add potatoes and bring water to a boil.
How long do you boil potatoes?
You want your water to be gently boiling the entire time the potatoes are cooking. How long you cook them here is key. My grandmother uses a pressure cooker to make her deliciously creamy homemade mashed potatoes. In absence of a pressure cooker, I use the old-fashioned method of cooking them until they cry uncle or about an hour or so.
Yes, I seriously did say an hour. I’m just shocking y’all left and right today, aren’t I?
After they are done cooking and fork tender, drain potatoes and put in your entire can of evaporated milk.
Add your 1/2 cup of butter.
I know it may seem like a lot of butter but honestly, can we ever have too much?
You can use real butter if you’re not as cheap as me.
Add another teaspoon or so of salt.
This is to taste. I prefer to under season my food if I am going to be serving it to company because this allows them to season it to their taste rather than have to eat it according to how I prefer it. I know many people who prefer very little to no salt and many more who prefer twice as much salt as I do!
Finally, add about 1/2 a teaspoon of pepper.
There is such a thing as white pepper which will not leave dark specks in your mashed potatoes if those bother you.
Now just use your hand mixer and beat the living mess out of everything until it is smooth and creamy.
How to mash potatoes
For the dish, I like to do this with my stand mixer and let it run for a few minutes. If you are feeling lazy or just want mashed potatoes with a more “country” feel, you can just use a potato masher and do it by hand. A potato masher is this neat little device that I have two of and use for pretty much everything except mashing potatoes.
This is one of my potato mashers
, but I tend to use it for meatloaf mixing more often than not. I also have this waffle head potato masher
.
Serve your straight away alongside other side dishes like butter beans, hush puppies, green beans, and fried okra. Enjoy!
Storage
Store leftover mashed potatoes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days. Reheat leftovers in the microwave. If you want to freeze your mashed potatoes, check out this recipe.
Recipe Notes
- Before you mash your potatoes, add chopped green onion, chopped parsley, or crumbled bacon for additional flavor.
- You can use regular milk to make these homemade mashed potatoes, but the evaporated milk makes a difference and gives the dish a richer flavor.
- Most old recipes which call for evaporated milk will have it simply listed as “pet milk,” which was (and is) a very popular brand of evaporated milk. I have never found a generic that didn’t taste exactly the same to me as the name brand when it comes to evaporated milk.
- Don’t confuse evaporated milk with sweetened condensed milk.
- Sweetened condensed milk has had water removed and sugar added, yielding a very thick and rich product. If my blood sugar would allow it, I’d happily live on sweetened condensed milk, that stuff is AWESOME.
- Evaporated milk has had water removed but no sugar added. However, the natural sugars which occur in milk are more concentrated and this produces has a richer flavor (which is one reason why I really like it in my coffee). You can actually reconstitute evaporated milk with equal parts of water to have the equivalent of fresh milk.
However, both evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk are browner in color than regular milk due to the heat in the pasteurization process causing a slight caramelizing to the natural sugars. Evaporated milk is also great in macaroni and cheese. Just substitute regular milk for evaporated milk when you want that richer flavor.
Recipe FAQs
What are the best potatoes to use in mashed potatoes?
The best potato variety to use in this is , , or .
Check out these other marvelous mashed potato recipes:
Thomas BBQ Mashed Potato Salad
Mozzarella Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Fancy Mashed Potatoes With Cheese
Ingredients
- 5 lbs mashed potatoes or 7-8 medium-sized potatoes
- 1 small can of evaporated milk 5 ounces
- 1 stick butter 1/2 cup
- 1 tsp salt for water
- 1 tsp salt for potatoes
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Peel and cut the potatoes into slices or large cubes.5 lbs mashed potatoes
- Fill a large pot with enough water to cover potatoes. Add 1 tsp of salt. Add the potatoes, bring to a boil, and boil gently for about an hour or until extremely tender.5 lbs mashed potatoes, 1 tsp salt for water
- Drain potatoes and add all other ingredients. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.1 small can of evaporated milk, 1 stick butter, 1 tsp salt for potatoes, 1/2 tsp pepper
These are by far the BEST mashed potatoes I’ve ever had. Wow. Now I just wish I knew how to make gravy. I hardly ever have drippings on hand, and the versions I’ve made with broth haven’t ever come out well. Could anyone please teach me a simple gravy recipe? I’d love you forever! 🙂
What kind of gravy? I can show you how to make milk gravy in a jiff!
I’ve been trying to find a good recipe for a beef or chicken gravy that doesn’t need drippings. I’ve tried it many times with broth, but it either doesn’t thicken enough or just doesn’t taste quite right. And I haven’t been able to find a bottled gravy that doesn’t include onions, which my husband won’t eat. So it’s been plain potatoes ’round here for a while. Would milk gravy taste good on potatoes? I’ve had it on country fried steak, but I don’t think I’ve ever tried it on potatoes.
Thanks so much!
Thanks for the recipe. It’s great to know there are other “MeMe’s” out there and not all MiMi’s. We also have MeMe’s famous pancakes at our house which really just adds some cinnamon to the batter, but the grandkids think it’s special because it’s MeMe’s.
Thanks again for this wonderful site and the wit and wisdom you share!
Ok, I just had a “slap myself on the forehead” moment. I use evaporated milk all the time but have never thought to use it in mashed potatoes! Thanks for another great recipe.
Why have I never found this site before?! Reading the recipes are like going through my mom’s old recipe box. You know the one – If you pull out a recipe, a hundred are falling out too! We lost mom in May so it’s really nice to see so many of her cooking wisdoms shared by so many. Evaporated milk goes into almost everything!! Thanks for great recipes and a good cry with a flood of memories.
Growing up, my favorite food was mashed potatos. When I was ill or under the weather, I always asked my Mom to make them for me. She made hers just like you do and they were fantastic. They are still my favorite comfort food. The dear lady that used to help my Mom around the house knew just how much I loved mashed potatos and she often made them for me. They were good but Mom’s were better. I think she used mayo instead of the butter that Mom used.But being the well mannered southern girl that I am, I told her they tasted just like Moms.It never hurts to make someone feel good does it?
I just loved reading your recipe here! I’ve made mashed potatoes many times for myself, instant and REAL. I was invited to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving dinner tonight and was asked to bring the mashed potatoes. I’ve never made them for anyone else, so I really want them to turn out. I’ve read 100 recipes today and yours is by far the best sounding one. Most recipes were about the same as yours, but I loved reading yours better! 🙂 I think it’s the “homemade” feeling! Can’t wait to start cooking!
Made these for the first time last night. Boy have I been missing out! The evaporated milk is the ticket! Sooo sooo creamy! Love it! And they’ll go great with that roast I’m making on Sunday for Father’s Day (thank you for that too). Followed by Butterfinger Cake, by special request from my husband! Yummy!